1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of hand held scraping tools for removing debris from a surface. In an exemplary embodiment, the invention can be particularly effective for removing frost, snow, and/or ice from a curved or multi-planar surface.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Conventional ice scrapers generally have inadequate abrasive surfaces and flexibility to enable efficient removal of ice, snow and frost, particularly from curved surfaces such as the windshield of automobiles. Typically, these ice scrapers have an elongated handle attached to a blade including a continuous blade edge for scraping a surface. Upon applying force to the handle, the blade is pushed across a surface while the blade edge burrows into and deflects ice away from the blade edge. The blade edge is generally the sole abrasive feature of the ice scraper and only enables scraping in one direction.
Additionally, conventional ice scrapers are inflexible. Their body and blade are designed to be rigid in order to apply a concentrated force to a surface in order to dislodge and deflect ice annealed thereon. This rigidity, however, also prevents the blade and blade edge from conforming to curved or multi-planar surfaces. Consequently, traditional ice scrapers are unable to effectively remove ice, snow or frost from curved or multi-planar surfaces, such as the headlight and surrounding frame of a vehicle.
Furthermore, the elongated narrow handle of conventional ice scrapers requires a user expend an excessive amount of force to scrape away ice that has adhered to a surface. The handles are neither ergonomic nor do they effectively transfer the applied force to a surface to be cleaned.
In view of the aforementioned limitations of the prior art, there exists a need to develop an improved ice scraper with a flexible blade capable of more effectively removing a substance from a surface.